Deck 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior

Question 1

The four principal functions of management are planning, organizing, budgeting, and controlling.

Answer 1

False
The four principal functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Question 2

The specific technical skills a manager needs will depend on the organization in which he or she works and his or her position within it.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

According to Mintzberg, a manager who commits organizational resources to launch a new product is functioning in the entrepreneur role.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The way managers lead employees is changing as millions work in self-managed teams.

Question 5

The principles of organizational behavior do not apply to people who volunteer to work in nonprofit or charitable organizations.

Question 6

Organizational culture seldom shapes the attitudes and behaviors of people and groups within an organization.

Question 7

The study of organizational behavior takes place at many different levels of analysis, including the individual level, the group level, and the division level.

Question 8

Managers need three principal kinds of skills in order to perform their organizational functions and roles effectively: conceptual, human, and technical.

Question 9

When managers perform strategic planning, they are using technical skills.

Question 10

Managers who inform organizational members about changes inside and outside the organization are performing the liaison role.

Question 11

A manager giving direct commands to subordinates is acting in Mintzberg's figurehead role.

Question 12

The guidelines for both managers and workers produced by the study of organizational behavior are a replacement for intuition and common sense.

Question 13

The quality of the goods that an organization produces is the product of the behaviors and performance of its workers.

Question 14

When a manager hosts the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new corporate headquarters of the local chamber of commerce, the manager is performing the figurehead role.

Question 15

Characteristics of the organization as a whole have little or no effect on the behavior of individuals and groups.

Question 16

Organizing involves grouping workers into groups, teams, or departments according to the kinds of tasks they perform.

Question 17

A team is a group in which members work together intensively to achieve a common group goal.

Question 18

Conceptual skills allow a manager to analyze and diagnose a situation and to distinguish between cause and effect.

Question 19

Top managers use planning to establish organizational strategy; that is, they decide how best to allocate and use resources to achieve organizational goals.

Question 20

Only top-level managers can make decisions about the workplace behavior that is required to meet an organization's goals.

Question 21

One of the biggest problems for entrepreneurs is their lack of technical skills.

Question 22

The behavior of managers and employees has little or no effect on people and groups outside the organization.

Question 23

In an open system, an organization absorbs resources from its external environment, converts or transforms those resources into goods and services, and returns them to that environment, where they are bought by customers.

Question 24

At the output stage of the open-systems view, the organization releases finished goods and services to its external environment, where customers purchase and use them to satisfy their needs.

Question 25

Metabolife was not compelled by law to disclose evidence of the adverse side effects of the drug Ephedra; therefore, its refusal to do so was not unethical.

Question 26

Global learning cannot be used to expedite global crisis management.

Question 27

Workforce diversity presents three challenges for employees and their managers: fairness and justice, decision making and performance, and flexibility.

Question 28

Global learning continually takes place as organizations compete worldwide for customers.

Question 29

The need to reduce the costs of making and selling goods to stay competitive with companies from around the world has pushed many U.S. companies to make most of their products abroad.

Question 30

Diversity is the result of differences in age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and capabilities or disabilities.

Question 31

An organization's social responsibility consists of its obligations and duty toward people or groups outside the organization that are directly affected by its actions.

Question 32

Ethics are the values, beliefs, and moral rules managers and employees should use to analyze or interpret a situation and then decide what is the "right" or appropriate way to behave.

Question 33

Union Bank of California uses the diversity of its employees to expand its customer base.

Question 34

Managing in the global environment is easy because basic attitudes and responses of workers are consistent across geographical boundaries.

Question 35

Most organizations have a similar view about their moral responsibility towards the public and other groups that are directly affected by organizational actions.

Question 36

IKEA's OB approach revolves around simplicity, attention to detail, and responsiveness in every aspect of its actions and behavior.

Question 37

Expatriate employees have had little impact on helping companies respond to global business challenges.

Question 38

As the culture of a nation changes over time, the values or beliefs of those who live in that nation also change.

Question 39

Organizations must be responsive to the changes that take place in a society, for the changes affect all aspects of their operations.

Question 40

When Ford and General Motors acquired the design skills of Italian companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini, they were engaged in global learning.

Question 41

The corporate drive to cut costs is often a response to increases in the minimum wage.

Question 42

Contingent workers cost more to employ, due to their flexibility.

Question 43

Knowledge is acquired by analyzing information and data.

Question 44

Value-creation activities such as marketing or manufacturing cannot be outsourced to a low-cost specialist company.

Question 45

Global learning does not impact organizational effectiveness.

Question 46

Innovation requires constant updating of knowledge and searching for new ideas and technological developments.

Question 47

Innovation is the generation of novel and useful ideas. One of the outcomes is creativity.

Question 48

The increasing use of empowered self-managed teams goes hand in hand with downsizing.

Question 49

Contingent workers are independent specialists who contract with an organization to perform specific tasks.

Question 50

Information technology (IT) includes computer and communication hardware and software, but it does not include human skills.

Question 51

Freelancers are similar to contingent workers except that they do not physically work inside a company.

Question 52

Contingent workers are employed for temporary periods by an organization and receive no benefits, such as health insurance or pensions.

Question 53

Global crisis management does not involve natural disasters.

Question 54

The relationship between employers and employees has not been affected by the increasing tendency of companies to lay off hard-working, loyal employees.

Question 55

People starting their careers today can expect to make at least six to eight job and organizational changes during their careers.

Question 56

An intranet is a network of information technology linkages inside an organization that connects all of its members.

Question 57

Learning is the result of acquiring more and better data.

Question 58

As computers have proliferated into the workplace, employees are spending more time on routine work tasks.

Question 59

Downsizing is the process by which organizations reduce costs by laying off managers and workers.

Question 60

Information technology has not affected the principles of organizational behavior.

Question 61

Employees who are a part of self-managed teams are LEAST LIKELY to have the power to ________.

A) interview job applicants and select new team members
B) train their new recruits on the job and teach each other new skills
C) develop new work methods that can increase their effectiveness
D) determine their own pay scale and award merit raises when earned

Question 62

In the managerial function of ________, managers encourage and motivate workers to work toward organizational goals.

A) leading
B) organizing
C) planning
D) controlling

Question 63

The study of organizational behavior provides a set of ________ that are useful for understanding the behavior that occurs within organizations.

A) guidelines
B) rituals
C) beliefs
D) textbooks

Question 64

Which of the following is MOST LIKELY to affect how a manager leads?

A) size of teams
B) structure of teams
C) objectives of teams
D) experience of teams

Question 65

The principal functions of management include all of the following EXCEPT ________.

A) organizing
B) executing
C) leading
D) controlling

Question 66

The study of organizational behavior provides a set of tools that help ________.

A) people to understand, analyze, and describe behavior in organizations
B) people to utilize their intuition and common sense to make business decisions
C) generate direct and sufficient profit for all stakeholders
D) people understand their own strengths and weaknesses

Question 67

An understanding of which of the following would help sales clerks at a department store understand the positive consequences of working hard to be courteous and agreeable to each other and to customers?

A) organizational behavior
B) scientific management
C) statistical analysis
D) evolutionary processes

Question 68

Which of the following actions is LEAST LIKELY to promote high quality customer service?

A) enacting strict operating guidelines
B) empowering salespeople
C) giving promotion based on performance
D) ensuring employees receive a decent salary

Question 69

The ________ function of management allows managers to diagnose how well they have performed.

A) performing
B) executing
C) leading
D) controlling

Question 70

An organization is BEST defined as ________.

A) a collection of people who work together to achieve a wide variety of goals
B) a system for responding to business emergencies
C) an administrative and functional structure
D) a group that exists to provide goods and services that people want

Question 71

A group is a collection of two or more people who ________.

A) interact from time to time
B) do not work cooperatively
C) interact to achieve their goals
D) pursue discrete agendas

Question 72

Roger Riley is a new department manager at Kelly & Kin Company. Two of his most important tasks are to encourage his employees to do a good job and to orchestrate different individual and group behaviors to help ensure all of his employees are working toward his department's goals. This set of responsibilities is also referred to as ________.

A) organizing.
B) leading
C) controlling
D) planning

Question 73

Which of the following would NOT contribute to organizational effectiveness?

A) excellent quality assurance procedures
B) quality employee retention programs
C) superior customer relations processes
D) high prices for all goods and services

Question 74

The members of a ________ work together using a common IT platform and may never actually meet.

A) cyber group
B) virtual team
C) digital team
D) electronic group

Question 75

Organizational ________ is the study of the many factors that have an impact on how people and groups act, think, feel, and respond to work and organizations, and how organizations respond to their environments.

A) behavior
B) effectiveness
C) responsibility
D) analysis

Question 76

With self-managed teams, the manager's new role is to ________.

A) provide advice and support for the team
B) take responsibility and credit for the team
C) issue strict rules and procedures for the team
D) remain separated from and uninvolved with the team

Question 77

Considerable risks are involved when managers make decisions MOST LIKELY because the decisions ________.

A) are made under uncertain conditions
B) affect many people
C) produce significant revenue
D) are plagued with faulty judgements

Question 78

In ________, managers establish the rules and reporting relationships that allow people to achieve organizational goals.

A) leading
B) designing
C) organizing
D) controlling

Question 79

Which of the following terms BEST describes several engineers working together, closely and intensely, to complete a project within a given time span?

A) group
B) team
C) organization
D) society

Question 80

Organizational behavior is examined at three main levels: ________ .

A) traits, behaviors, and results
B) affective, cognitive, and behavioral
C) individual, organizational, and societal
D) individual, group, and organizational